Powder and Packed Powder Conditions Dominate the Snow Conditions Reports after up to 12 inches of Snow!

It is going to one BOMBER of a day today! The snow is still falling as I begin this morning’s update, although you can see a lot of blue sky towards Boone. As I look up towards Banner Elk and Beech Mountains…there is STILL a cloud hovering on top of those areas and Grandfather Mountain. This snow system really layed a dumping on the higher elevations. Numerous times on Wednesday we would tune in to the webcams and see sun down at Appalachian and Boone, sun here around our area and then blizzard conditions up atop Sugar, Hawksnest and Beech Mountains.

The snow kept coming in waves in most areas of the state. We’d see moderate snow and then periods of sun, then more snow. As it turns out there WERE some substantial totals.

Before I get into ski area totals, the most impressive snow total that we received a report of came from our weather guru buddy, Greg Dobson who sent us the NOAA report for Wednesday morning wherein Mount Leconte (that overlooks Ober Gatlinburg in the Smokies, had received an OFFICIAL snow depth of 17" as of Wednesday morning. That figure is liable to be higher after more snow fell in the last 24 hours!

We also received numerous reports into Tennessee that exceed 15" and heard a few 20" totals. We’ll update you when we get something official to report!

Closer to home, portions of Watauga County saw 13" of snow, Wolf Laurel (home to Wolf Ridge Resort saw 10-12", Sugar Mountain 11", Beech Mountain 11", 5-6" atop Sleepy Hollow, and surprisingly Boone is reporting an official 3". To show you how this snow seemed to cling to certain areas, Linville Falls only saw a mere DUSTING of snow!

We’ll get to the ski area tallies in a second, but if you have been thinking of taking a trip to your favorite mountain this weekend, quit THINKING and get up here. It will be an awesome few days ahead with the best of the best today and Friday.

The forecast is for a high today of 32° and another snowmaking night tonight of 18°. Friday should be nice with variable skies and a high in the mid 40s and lows around 31°. Saturday and Sunday look nice with highs in the 40s and lows Saturday night around 23°.

HERE WE GO ON A QUICK TOUR OF THE RESORTS…

Appalachian Ski Mountain – 10° – They made snow all day yesterday, all night last night and still were as of 8am – They also picked up another 3" (6" total from the 2 day storm). They have packed powder conditions on 100% of the slopes, terrain parks and the ice rink is open as well. The sun is out at App!

Cataloochee – 13° – They made snow all Wednesday, last night and still are – They reported 2-3" of snow Wednesday am and another 3" giving them 6" from the storm. They will have 7 trails open today, plus their tubing park. Don’t forget that the Cat Crew offers the Cataloochee Challenge Cup Race Series on Thursday nights.

Hawksnest Resort – 8° – They made snow all Wed, last night and still are. They also saw another 4" of snow, giving them 9" of snow in the last 48 hours. They will have powder conditions on 9 trails today with terrain park features scattered around the mountain. They will have snow tubing as well. Conditions should be sweet up there today!

Ski Beech – 5° – They made a ton of snow yesterday, last night and still are this morning. – Beech is reporting 9-12" of new snow. There are some substantial snow drifts as the snow system really hung on up there. The official reporting stations at Avery County for Beech and Sugar Mountains provided by Baker Perry of the Department of Geography and Planning are showing 8.5" of snow for the last two days, so that is pretty close.

Sugar Mountain – 4° – They made snow all yesterday, last night and still are. Like Beech Mountain, the high elevation of Sugar clung to the snow cloud (or vice versa!) and the call here is that they received the same 9-12" of snow with the official tally saying 8.5" of snow. They have 20 trails open, terrain park, and ice skating. The tubing hill will open later in the day.

Wolf Ridge – 18° – They made snow and have seen 9-10" of snow from this storm. They will offer powder conditions on 8 trails today and snow tubing as well. The terrain park is closed.

Several people have emailed us asking about how much snow the resorts have seen ON THE SEASON now that this best snow of the season is wrapping up. We keep those totals all season long. You can simply click on the ski area link from the front page and that will take you to the "current conditions" display in the middle column of those pages. You’ll note the "07-08 Snow" reference for each.

Ski Beech leads the way for the North Carolina resorts with 36" on the season, Sugar has seen 31", Hawksnest 30", Wolf Ridge 28". You can go look for the rest!

ONLY 9 DAYS TO GO BEFORE WE EXPERIENCE THE 1st ANNUAL SKISOUTHEAST.COM SUMMIT!! MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US!

9 Days to Go Until the 1st Annual SkiSoutheast.com Summit! If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

72 people have committed to come and we have several of the most notable messageboard crew coming including GaTom, Mellow Yellow and others. Some of the newer, most active members such as TheGnar will be there and we’re trying to nudge the top dog on the board "TeleDave" to make it. (He’s trying to free up his schedule.) Meteorologist Brad Panovich will be there doing a remote weather broadcast for WCNC TV (with us as a background!) and Snowshoe’s President and COO, Bill Rock is providing some first tracks for us Sunday AM. Marketing Babe (she knows that I mean that in the best possible way!), Laura Parquette will be there making some turns with us…as will Marketing Director Brad Larsen, VP Ed Galford and others! We have the WV Ski Areas Spokeperson, Joe Stevens who is going to hang with us…

There’s FREE Wings, Free Sunday lift tickets and $100 OFF On Mountain Lodging for Summit Attendees! The only thing missing so far is YOU (If you haven’t made reservations yet!)

Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted close to 14,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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